I wonder what their restrictions/agreements are with the AF regarding a weekday test? Seems like they're trying for a weekend, but can they grab an opportunity on short notice without impacting EAFB operations? They won't be able to keep the chopper down there for a month.

« Last Edit: 11/06/2017 05:31 PM by JAFO »

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Anyone can do the job when things are going right. In this business we play for keeps.— Ernest K. Gann

"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

I have a dream, that one day the skies over Edwards will once again echo with a double sonic boom announcing the arrival of a Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft.

Or possibly Kourou.

Despite what people may think DC remains the most cutting edge current vehicle that has actually been built.

A crew rated (has to be if it's berthing/docking to ISS) composite structure lifting body vehicle expected to fly from full LEO to landing automatically.

People will say "What about the X37b," but while it is automated it's not crew rated, and its design is a fairly conventional winged body (as was Shuttle, but with complex wings for the near totally unused cross range requirement).

« Last Edit: 11/06/2017 11:42 PM by john smith 19 »

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BFS. The worlds first Methane fueled FFORSC engined CFRP structured A380 sized aerospaceplane tail sitter capable of flying in Earth and Mars atmospheres. BFR. The worlds biggest Methane fueled FFORSC engined CFRP structured booster for BFS. First flight to Mars by end of 2022. Forward looking statements. T&C apply. Believe no one. Run your own numbers. So, you are going to Mars to start a better life? Picture it in your mind. Now say what it is out loud.

It was advanced in 1982. The state of the art in lifting bodies maybe hasn't advanced enough to make it not advanced now.

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"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

I have a dream, that one day the skies over Edwards will once again echo with a double sonic boom announcing the arrival of a Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft.

Or possibly Kourou.

Despite what people may think DC remains the most cutting edge current vehicle that has actually been built.

...based on a Soviet test spacecraft that first flew in 1982. So be careful with that hyberbole, it is very selective.

Why? I characterized it as "cutting edge" for the total package, not for any one feature.a) No other design close to flight is a lifting body.b) Crew rated (none of the Russian vehicles or the X37b is)c) Composite construction. AFAIK only the X37b and BEAM modules are. You would not like to attempt Earth entry inside BEAM, although it's probably survivable in the payload bay of the X37b.

By contrast the both of the other CC vehicles are very technically conservative, especially so with the elimination of land landing from Dragon 2.

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BFS. The worlds first Methane fueled FFORSC engined CFRP structured A380 sized aerospaceplane tail sitter capable of flying in Earth and Mars atmospheres. BFR. The worlds biggest Methane fueled FFORSC engined CFRP structured booster for BFS. First flight to Mars by end of 2022. Forward looking statements. T&C apply. Believe no one. Run your own numbers. So, you are going to Mars to start a better life? Picture it in your mind. Now say what it is out loud.

"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Oh goodie, the return of “lifting bodies are great and capsules are dumb”. Lifting bodies aren’t inherently more advanced than capsules.

The term I used was "cutting edge," because it is using approaches that have not been very well explored up to now.

I'm not saying DC is "better, " merely that it pushes the boundaries more than capsule designs. How many capsule designs have flown (AFAIK all biology sample returns and film return from reconnaissance satellites through the 1960s and 70's were capsules. That only changed with Shuttle).

Different <> Better. DC and capsules both have attractive features, along with less attractive features.

This came up during SX's design of Dragon and Dragon 2. Anything docking or berthing to the ISS has to be safe enough for humans to use it, in terms of the structural integrity, temperature and pressure it can maintain, basically by complying with all design standards necessary to do so. What's no longer mandatory is a GNC and landing system with 5 9's reliability (since IIRC this will still be berthed, and ISS will be in control of most of the process) and the g limits can be relaxed.

IIRC Rand Simberg pointed out that "Man rating" originally applied to how to increase the reliability of re-purposed ICBM's to the level they could reasonably safely carry humans. Given that including sitting on top of several hundred tons of toxic, carcinogenic and corrosive hypergols during the Gemini programme, this is an unusual definition of the word "safe."

Your future posts would be improved if you read what I wrote, not what you think I wrote.

BFS. The worlds first Methane fueled FFORSC engined CFRP structured A380 sized aerospaceplane tail sitter capable of flying in Earth and Mars atmospheres. BFR. The worlds biggest Methane fueled FFORSC engined CFRP structured booster for BFS. First flight to Mars by end of 2022. Forward looking statements. T&C apply. Believe no one. Run your own numbers. So, you are going to Mars to start a better life? Picture it in your mind. Now say what it is out loud.